The story starts off in Tokyo III after an event called the Second Impact which melted the Polar ice caps in Antartica and caused masive flooding throughout the world. Besides all of that, humanity has also been plagued by the appearence of Alien-like creatures called Angels which cause havoke and distruction wherever they happen to end up. The millitary organization, Nerv, has developed the only wepon that has a chance of standing up and defeating the Angels, called an Eva.
The only thing about these new wepons is that they are only able to piloted by thirteen year olds, and each child is carefully selected based on a number of other factors as well. Shinji Ikari is the son of Nerv's director, Gendo Ikari, who was sent away to live with family shortly after his mother died. He comes to Tokyo III after his father sends for him, and discovers that the reasson is far worse then he can imagine. He has been chosen as the Third Child to pilot the Eva's.
Initially, the anime is about Sinji's personal struggle to deal with being an Eva pilot, and with his hate for his father. As the story progresses, we see that their is a lot more at stake for all of the characters besides just their lives as they continue to battle the Angels.
My discription might be a little confusing, but the only thing I can say in my defence is that it's kinda a confusing series! To make it easier for you, if your into anime with large fighting robots and a little bit of thinking inbetween the fight sceans, then this is the anime for you. I really enjoyed it eventhough it tends to get a little strange near the ending, but would warn that it is not appropreate for all ages. (If you watch it, then you'll know what I mean.)
This series consists of aproximatly 26 episodes ( 8 discs if you buy it on DVD ) and a movie (Which is really more of an ending to the series ) called Death and Rebirth.
