Neon Genesis Evangelion
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50 free Neon Genesis Evangelion trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Neon Genesis Evangelion arrived on Japanese television in 1995 looking like one more giant-robot show and turned into something stranger: a story about frightened teenagers, distant parents and the end of the world, told with religious imagery and long silences. Decades later it is still argued over and rewatched, and its finale remains one of the most debated endings in anime. This quiz covers the whole of it: Shinji and the other pilots, the staff of Nerv, the creatures attacking the city, and the vocabulary fans pick up along the way. It also goes behind the scenes, with questions on the director, the studio, the voice cast, the opening and ending songs, the manga and the cinema releases that kept retelling the story. It suits anyone from a first-run viewer to someone who has only just finished the series on streaming. The early questions are the ones most viewers can answer, and the deeper cuts are saved for later rounds.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which religion's symbols did Neon Genesis Evangelion's assistant director say were there to look exotic in Japan?
Christianity
Christianity was mined for its look alone, with assistant director Kazuya Tsurumaki denying any religious meaning. The staff wanted imagery that felt interesting and unfamiliar to viewers at home.
Q 02What kind of animal is the hot-spring-loving pet kept by Shinji's guardian in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
A penguin
A penguin named Pen Pen shares the apartment, one of a new breed made for hot springs. The serial number on his collar hints that he came out of a biotechnology experiment.
Q 03Which Bart Howard standard, tied to the Apollo missions by Frank Sinatra, is Neon Genesis Evangelion's ending theme?
Fly Me to the Moon
Fly Me to the Moon is sung over the credits by Claire Littley and members of the voice cast. Licensing problems later kept the song off the 2019 streaming release outside Japan.
Q 04What are the Evangelion units of Neon Genesis Evangelion revealed to be beneath their armour plating?
Living humanoid giants
Living humanoid giants with eyes, skin and internal organs, the Evangelions are classed as cyborgs rather than conventional mecha. Part of their plating exists to keep them under control.
Q 05Which opening theme of Neon Genesis Evangelion, with lyrics finished in two hours, became a lasting karaoke hit?
A Cruel Angel's Thesis
A Cruel Angel's Thesis lost a planned male backing choir at the director's request, to stress a feeling of maternal affection. It went on winning karaoke popularity polls years after the series first aired.
Q 06How do the other characters greet Shinji in the closing scene of Neon Genesis Evangelion's final television episode?
They applaud him
They applaud him and offer congratulations as the dark, constricting world around him shatters. The last two episodes were completed in only a few days, and a feature-film remake of the ending followed in 1997.
Q 07Which director made Neon Genesis Evangelion after a four-year depression that followed Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water?
Hideaki Anno
Hideaki Anno was expelled from Osaka University of Arts after he stopped paying tuition to make fan films. He tried to give each character a part of his own personality.
Q 08On which continent did the Second Impact hit an expedition, fifteen years before Neon Genesis Evangelion begins?
Antarctica
Antarctica was the scene of the disaster on 13 September 2000. A lone survivor of the expedition was carried clear in an escape pod.
Q 09What is the main armour colour of Unit-01, the single-horned machine Shinji pilots in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Purple
Purple plating covers Unit-01, whose long horn rises from the centre of its forehead. Early sketches gave it two frontal horns before the final design was settled.
Q 10Which service gave Neon Genesis Evangelion its worldwide streaming debut in 2019 with a newly recorded English dub?
Netflix
Netflix launched the series on 21 June 2019 with a re-translated script and a new English cast. The distributor of the original dub had dissolved a decade earlier.
Q 11Which introverted, blue-haired pilot of Evangelion Unit-00 holds the designation First Child in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Rei Ayanami
Rei Ayanami owes her blue hair to a design left over from the studio's unproduced film Aoki Uru. Her red eyes were the director's idea, to set her apart from everyone else.
Q 12Which fiery, red-haired pilot commands Evangelion Unit-02 as the Second Child in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Asuka Langley Soryu
Asuka Langley Soryu is renamed Asuka Shikinami Langley in the later film series, where her background and personality differ markedly from the television original.
Q 13Which operations chief, sole survivor of the Second Impact expedition, is Shinji's guardian in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Q 21What do the letters AT stand for in the AT Field, the barrier raised by Angels and Evangelions alike?
Absolute Terror
Absolute Terror Fields make the Angels nearly indestructible, so only an Evangelion with a field of its own can fight them. One critic likened the barrier to the one in the older robot anime Space Runaway Ideon.
Q 22Which liquid fills an Evangelion's Entry Plug to help link the pilot's nervous system to the machine?
LCL
LCL fills the cylindrical capsule, which slots into the Evangelion's spine at the neck. The main nerve involved in syncing pilot and machine is known as the A10 nerve.
Q 23What feeds an Evangelion its electricity in battle, leaving five minutes of battery at most if the link is lost?
Misato Katsuragi
Misato Katsuragi was imagined as a grown-up Usagi Tsukino, the heroine of a hit magical-girl anime, and was given the same voice actress. At home she lives amid beer cans and car magazines.
Q 14Which supreme commander of Nerv, famous for his clasped-hands pose, abandoned his son Shinji in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Gendo Ikari
Gendo Ikari's bond with his deputy was modelled on that of Commander Ed Straker and Colonel Alec Freeman in the British series UFO. His pose has been homaged in other anime and manga.
Q 15Which Fifth Child, sent as a replacement pilot for Unit-02, proves to be the final Angel in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Kaworu Nagisa
Kaworu Nagisa appears in just one episode of the original series, yet he went on to top fan popularity polls. He was first conceived as a boy controlled by a cat.
Q 16Which character is chosen as the Fourth Child to pilot the doomed Evangelion Unit-03 in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Toji Suzuhara
Toji Suzuhara agrees to pilot only if his injured sister is moved to the hospital at Nerv headquarters. An Angel then takes over Unit-03 at its activation test and sends it out of control.
Q 17Which voice actress, first heard as Kurama in YuYu Hakusho, voiced Shinji in Neon Genesis Evangelion and all its films?
Megumi Ogata
Megumi Ogata has voiced Shinji in the series, the films, the spin-offs and the video games. Her other roles include Sailor Uranus and Yugi Mutou in the first Yu-Gi-Oh! anime.
Q 18From what did Neon Genesis Evangelion's director take most characters' surnames, including Akagi, Ibuki and Fuyutsuki?
Imperial Navy warships
Imperial Navy warships of the Second World War supplied most of the surnames. Two of Shinji's classmates were instead named after characters in a Ryu Murakami novel.
Q 19Whose soul is revealed to live inside Evangelion Unit-01, letting it move to protect Shinji in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
His mother
His mother Yui volunteered as the test subject for an experimental activation of the unit in 2004, when she was twenty-seven. Her soul stayed inside, and now and then she steers it to help her son.
Q 20Which animal's dilemma, a concept from the philosopher Schopenhauer, titles Neon Genesis Evangelion's fourth episode?
Hedgehog
Hedgehog's Dilemma, in which Shinji runs away from home, is the only episode where the series director is credited with neither direction nor screenplay. Its Japanese title means Rain, After Running Away.
An umbilical cable
An umbilical cable carries the power an Evangelion needs to run its circuits. Without it, the internal battery lasts somewhere between sixty seconds and five minutes.
Q 24Which Angel, held on a cross deep beneath Nerv, is the being humanity descends from in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Lilith
Lilith is counted as the second Angel, while most of the others spring from Adam. Every attacking Angel is drawn toward the chamber where it is locked away.
Q 25Which weapon pins a giant Angel to a cross in the depths of Nerv headquarters in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
The Spear of Longinus
The Spear of Longinus borrows the name given to the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a lance.
Q 26Which octahedron-shaped Angel does Shinji shoot with a rifle powered by the whole of Japan in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Ramiel
Ramiel hides its core inside its body, closing the weak point of the Angels before it. The plan to snipe it from beyond its attack zone is called Operation Yashima.
Q 27Which plan to merge mankind's souls does Shinji's father trigger after the last Angel falls in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Human Instrumentality Project
The Human Instrumentality Project has been compared to the Kabbalistic concept of tikkun olam. Early drafts of the story ended with the plan failing after an Angel attack.
Q 28Which secret committee, formally in control of Nerv, sends mass-produced Evangelions to attack in the 1997 film finale?
Seele
Seele wants to fuse humanity into a single consciousness on its own terms. When its attempt to hack Nerv fails, it sends Japan's Strategic Self-Defense Forces to seize the base.
Q 29Which Nerv supercomputer, built by Naoko Akagi as three linked units, is hacked by an Angel in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
The Magi
The Magi take their unit names from the three wise men of Matthew's Nativity story, traditionally Balthasar, Gaspar and Melchior. Each holds one side of its creator's personality.
Q 30Which real ancient manuscripts are said to have foretold the awakening of the Angels in Neon Genesis Evangelion?
The Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls won new readers thanks to the show: one scholar links its popularity to a boom in books about them and about Kabbalah.