I'm not generally a big fan of anime. I like my cartoons, but anime just always seems to lack something I need.
I do, however, fully love the Evangelion series. It's like no other anime.
The whole story revolves around a kid named Shinji Ikari. Shinji, along with Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langely Soryu pilot giant robots called Evangelion's, to fight off creatures called Angels that are hell bent on destroying the earth. All Eva pilots are tapped at the age of 13 to join NERV, a special section of the U.N. designed to fight off the Angels.
The year is 2015, 15 years after the "Second Impact", which wiped out the Antarctic. Tokyo has been destroyed twice by the Angels in an attempt to stop NERV, so NERV built a giant underground fortress as a defense against the Angels. When Tokyo 3, as it is now called, is attacked, all the buildings retract into the ground and are protected by NERV's defenses.
NERV's commander, Gendo Ikari, is Shinji's father and an all around son-of-a-bitch. He left Shinji when he was but a wee tyke to fight the Angels. He never shows any love to his son.
Telling you any more than that gives away too much of the story. The series is 26 episodes followed by two movies. The series is available on VHS and the DVD's are being released as I summarize. The movies will be released on DVD in October of 2001.
Update: September 3, 2002
The first movie, "
Death & Rebirth", was released in August 2002. The second movie, "
The End of Evangelion", will be released towards the end of September.