Hideaki Anno, in some way or another, has spent most of his career trying to live up to his first masterpiece, Neon Genesis Evangelion. A towering work of cerebral sci-fi, Evangelion juggled its mecha-anime narrative with Freudian character drama, bureaucratic nightmares, cosmic terror, and extremely horny teen angst. It’s one of the most thematically dense works of the 20th century, and it’s no wonder Anno has spent the years since its release funneling its disparate elements through other works of art.
