Apocalypse, Affect and Animation: Thirty Years of Neon Genesis Evangelion
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
- Venue
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Room
- Djam Lecture Theatre (DLT)
- Event type
- Film screening & Seminar
About this event
Marking the 30th anniversary of the landmark anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), this event combines a screening of the first episode with a panel discussion on the series’ enduring cultural, aesthetic, and emotional impact.
Professors Rayna Denison (University of Bristol), Filippo Cervelli (SOAS), and Declan Prout (SOAS) explore Evangelion’s apocalyptic imagination, its distinctive visual and affective language, and its influence on global animation and popular culture.
The discussion addresses how the series’ fractured narrative and introspective tone reframed ideas of heroism, trauma, and selfhood in the late 20th century and beyond, inviting audiences to reflect on why Evangelion continues to resonate—philosophically, emotionally, and visually—three decades after its original broadcast.
Attendance
This event is free, open to the public, and held in person only.
Organiser
This event has been organised by the SOAS Japan Research Centre.
About the speakers
Rayna Denison is Professor of Film and Digital Art at the University of Bristol, where she undertakes research and teaching on Japanese film and animation. Rayna is the author of Anime: A Critical Introduction and Studio Ghibli: An Industrial History, as well as the editor or co-editor of Superheroes on World Screens, Princess Mononoke: Understanding Studio Ghibli's Monster Princess and The Many Worlds of Takahata Isao. Her articles can be found in a wide selection of academic journals including the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Velvet Light Trap, The International Journal of Cultural Studies and Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal. She is a section editor for Japan Forum.
Filippo Cervelli is Senior Lecturer in Modern Japanese Literature and Popular Culture at SOAS University of London. He has written on the literature of Takahashi Gen’ichirō, Ōe Kenzaburō, Abe Kazushige, on post-Fukushima fiction, on manga and animation. He has also co-edited an interdisciplinary special issue on representations of nerds and loneliness for the journal Exchanges.
Declan Prout is a PhD candidate at SOAS University of London with a focus on Japan. Their thesis centres on hauntology and emotionality in sci-fi anime of the so-called 'lost decades' in Japan. Declan's other research interests include representations of the 'West' in Japanese fiction, representations of the 'spectral' as it appears in contemporary media, and the history and representation of the LGBTQ+ community in Japan. Beyond this, Declan has also taught on modules centring around East Asian folklore, the history and representations of Japan as it appears in media across the world, and critical media and fandom theory.
Speaker headshots
Contact
Email: centres@soas.ac.uk
