What would a live action Evangelion be like?

Neon Genesis Evangelion is perhaps one of the most iconic anime in history, so much so that it remains relevant to this day. The original series led to the rebirth of the anime industry and has become a cultural icon.

Evangelion films, manga, home videos, and other products have achieved record sales in Japan and overseas. Related products sold over 150 billion yen in 2007, and pachinko machines related to the series sold 700 billion yen by 2015.

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Written and directed by Hideaki Anno, the anime was produced by Gainax and animated by Tatsunoko. The series aired on TV Tokyo from October 4, 1995 to March 27, 1996.

The Story Behind Evangelion

Evangelion is set fifteen years after a global cataclysm, in the futuristic fortified city of Tokyo-3. The protagonist, Shinji, is a teenager recruited by his father, Gendo, to a mysterious organization called Nerv. He must pilot a giant biomachine known as “Evangelion” to fight beings called “Angels”.

The series explores the experiences and emotions of the Evangelion pilots and the members of Nerv as they attempt to prevent further catastrophes. In the process, they seek to understand the causes of events and the motives behind human actions.

The series is described as a deconstruction of the mecha genre and features archetypal imagery from Shinto cosmology, as well as Jewish and Christian mystical traditions. The psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Jung also served as a source of inspiration for the writing of the script.

Neon Genesis Evangelion was critically acclaimed but also controversial, especially for the last two episodes. In 1997, Anno and Gainax released the feature film The End of Evangelionshowing the ending from a different perspective.

What if Evangelion was a tokusatsu, I mean, live action?

If you are over 30, like this humble writer, you will surely remember tokusatsus that marked an entire generation. The most famous is certainly Power Rangers, but there are other notable names, such as the Black Kamen Rider, Jaspion, Jiraiya, Ultraman, Changeman franchises and others.

Well, Evangelion was never a tokusatsu series. But the artificial intelligence is there to imagine what the anime would be like if it were filmed with real people. What I found interesting about the images is that the images generated by AI even have that aged look that we see in old photos and productions.

Take a look at the gallery below:

So, what did you think of the images? Would you watch a live action Evangelion?