The anime of Neon Genesis Evangelion started airing in 1995 in Japan. It would get various revisions from there, but the first big one whose goal was to change history was the first Rebuild film in 2007. While there were plenty of delays, the two sequels would come out at a somewhat steady pace with the third debuting in 2012. The last film has seen almost double the amount of delays through various production complications. It was set to debut last year but was delayed into 2021 due to the pandemic.

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It has now launched as of March 8th. Was the long, nine year wait be worth it? More importantly, how did it end compared to the original anime? While there are synopsis of it online, Western fans have to wait until they actually see it. So, rather than comment on the unknown, let’s instead go through the biggest changes between what has already been established in the three Rebuild films compared to the anime.

7 The Missing Angels

While some of the numbers may differ, there are multiple angels that appear in both the original series and Rebuild movies. For example, the first movie covers Sachiel, Shamshel, and Ramiel. The second movie then covers Sahaquiel, Bardiel, and Zeruel.

The angels that have not appeared, or at least not yet, are Gaghiel from episode eight, Israfel from episode nine, Sandalphon from episode ten, Matarael from episode eleven, Ireul from episode thirteen, Leliel from episode sixteen, Arael from episode twenty-two, and Armisael from episode twenty-three. The films introduce new angels instead of just fully omitting those ones such as the Third Angel and the Seventh Angel which both appear in the second movie. 

6 Asuka’s Introduction 

In the anime, Asuka is introduced in episode eight aboard a naval ship along with Koji. She then pilots Unit-02 to fight off Gaghiel by herself before Shinji is asked to double up in the Eva as well. Another fun fact to mention is that she loses her eye due to a spear in The End of Evangelion whole fighting the mass produced Eva units.

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Asuka in the Rebuild universe comes into the fray in the second film. She descends seemingly from the heavens in order to wipe out the Seventh Angel, new and exclusive to this movie. The biggest difference between the two arcs is that she is asked to pilot Unit-03 toward the middle of the movie which is eventually taken over by an Angel. It’s the same unit Toji pilots in the anime with the same results happening to Asuka. This is how she injures her eye presumably in the fight against Shinji.

5 The Fourth Children

Mari and Toji are both referred to as the 4th Child. Mari is new to the Rebuild series and first appears in the second film wherein she is shown fighting off the Third Angel. She then meets Shinji later on in the film as she parachutes onto his school and eventually takes over as the Unit-02 pilot after Asuka is injured from the Unit-03 incident with the Ninth Angel aka Bardiel in the anime.

That incident is how Toji becomes the 4th Child in the anime. He only does it to get his sister in NERV’s special care unit. His meeting and arc is essentially the same in the films except for the fact that he does not become an Eva pilot and his sister is shown to have gotten better and even becomes a major character in the third film. 

4 Kaworu

Kaworu appears in the twenty-fourth episode of the anime. While he does appear in flashes in the next two, that is pretty much it other than the retooled ending from The End of Evangelion film. He becomes the Fifth Child and is brought in to replace Asuka as the Unit-02 pilot. Once inside he then reveals his true colors and becomes the Seventeenth Angel. Shinji ultimately finishes him off. 

In the Rebuild films, he is teased in the first two, but doesn’t become an actual player until the third film. He is both known as the First Angel and the Thirteenth Angel in that movie. The third film plays him out to be a more sympathetic character in that he thinks he is leading Shinji on the right path before he finds out it was all a trick set up by Gendo and SEELE. He dies in this universe too. 

3 Jet Alone And The Other Mass Produced Evas

Episode seven in the anime explores the Japanese government trying to find their own solution to the Angel crisis. It is clear they don’t like relying on NERV which is why they created Jet Alone. It is a robot that acts on a nuclear engine.

During the test it goes haywire and NERV is then forced to send in Eva units in order to contain it. That’s not the only robot alternative to Evas though. It is teased in the anime but it’s ultimately never shown until The End of Evangelion film but there were other mass produced units out there. These do act and look more like Evas though. The Rebuild series does not see any of these alternatives or at least not on this scale. 

2 The Birth Of NERV

Episode twenty-one, “The Birth Of NERV,” was very important in the anime because it finally shed some backstory on the beginning of NERV and the Second Impact. That is to say more character development was given to Fuyutsuki, Gendo, Yui, Misato, Ritsuko, and Rei.

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This is all done through Fuyutsuki‘s recollection and is thus the main focus. It is clear from here that he is against most of Gendo’s plans before he eventually caves which is never really defined clearly. Back in the present, Misato is forced to kill Kaji at the end of the episode. The Rebuild films have yet to explore the past on this scale. 

1 Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo

By the end of the second Rebuild film it’s clear something different was going to happen in the third film. Little did fans know that it would skip ahead fourteen years into the future. Humanity and Earth has almost been destroyed. Misato, along with some others, split off from NERV in order to form WILLE, an anti-NERV unit. Shinji wakes up from a time slumber, not aging a bit, and is locked away as a prisoner as the others think he might be an Angel or something. 

There’s way more to it but the point is the third film is where these two series differ the most. It also is somewhat proof that both exist in the same universe in that fans believe this is a repeating loop story. The anime show, films, manga and games are all but one possibility that resets after each new Third Impact result. That is the big takeaway one should gather from this. It’s all cannon more or less. 

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