Deriving from Neo-Platonism and Henosis, mysticism is popularly known as union with God or the Absolute. In the 13th century the term unio mystica came to be used to refer to the "spiritual marriage", the ecstasy, or rapture, that was experienced when prayer was used "to contemplate both God's omnipresence in the world and God in his essence." In the 19th century, under the influence of Romanticism, this "union" was interpreted as a "religious experience", which provides certainty about God or a transcendental reality. McGinn notes that the term unio mystica, although it has Christian origins, is primarily a modern expression. McGinn argues that "presence" is more accurate than "union", since not all mystics spoke of union with God, and since many visions and miracles were not necessarily related to union. He also argues that we should speak of "consciousness" of God's presence, rather than of "experience", since mystical activity is not simply about the sensation of God as an external object, but more broadly about "new ways of knowing and loving based on states of awareness in which God becomes present in our inner acts." However, the idea of "union" does not work in all contexts. For example, in Advaita Vedanta, there is only one reality (Brahman) and therefore nothing other than reality to unite with it—Brahman in each person (atman) has always in fact been identical to Brahman all along. Dan Merkur also notes that union with God or the Absolute is a too limited definition, since there are also traditions which aim not at a sense of unity, but of nothingness, such as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Meister Eckhart.

McGinn notes that the term unio mystica, although it has Christian origins, is primarily a modern expression. McGinn argues that "presence" is more accurate than "union", since not all mystics spoke of union with God, and since many visions and miracles were not necessarily related to union. He also argues that we should speak of "consciousness" of God's presence, rather than of "experience", since mystical activity is not simply about the sensation of God as an external object, but more broadly about "new ways of knowing and loving based on states of awareness in which God becomes present in our inner acts." However, the idea of "union" does not work in all contexts. For example, in Advaita Vedanta, there is only one reality (Brahman) and therefore nothing other than reality to unite with it—Brahman in each person (atman) has always in fact been identical to Brahman all along. Dan Merkur also notes that union with God or the Absolute is a too limited definition, since there are also traditions which aim not at a sense of unity, but of nothingness, such as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Meister Eckhart. Deriving from Neo-Platonism and Henosis, mysticism is popularly known as union with God or the Absolute. In the 13th century the term unio mystica came to be used to refer to the "spiritual marriage", the ecstasy, or rapture, that was experienced when prayer was used "to contemplate both God's omnipresence in the world and God in his essence." In the 19th century, under the influence of Romanticism, this "union" was interpreted as a "religious experience", which provides certainty about God or a transcendental reality.

Mysticism involves an explanatory context, which provides meaning for mystical and visionary experiences, and related experiences like trances. According to Dan Merkur, mysticism may relate to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness, and the ideas and explanations related to them. Parsons stresses the importance of distinguishing between temporary experiences and mysticism as a process, which is embodied within a "religious matrix" of texts and practices. Richard Jones does the same. Peter Moore notes that mystical experience may also happen in a spontaneous and natural way, to people who are not committed to any religious tradition. These experiences are not necessarily interpreted in a religious framework. Ann Taves asks by which processes experiences are set apart and deemed religious or mystical. Some authors emphasize that mystical experience involves intuitive understanding of the meaning of existence and of hidden truths, and the resolution of life problems. According to Larson, "mystical experience is an intuitive understanding and realization of the meaning of existence." According to McClenon, mysticism is "the doctrine that special mental states or events allow an understanding of ultimate truths." ccording to James R. Horne, mystical illumination is "a central visionary experience hat results in the resolution of a personal or religious problem."

Ryoji Kaji is a triple agent: nominally Nerv inspection, actually reporting to the Japanese government and to Seele, actually pursuing his own investigation into what Gendo is really building. He is the only adult who tells the children the truth when asked, which is why his death matters. He shows Shinji his watermelon patch, delivers the evidence of Adam to Misato, and is shot by an unseen party; the series never identifies the shooter. His relationship with Misato — abandoned years earlier because she recognised her father in him — is the show's one adult romance, and it is conducted entirely in the past tense. Her relationship with Shinji is the most legible and least resolvable thing in the show: two children who need each other and can only express it as contempt. Sadamoto has said their dynamic was initially modelled on Jean and Nadia from Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, which makes the darkening instructive — the same template, run by someone in a much worse state of mind.

Anno described Rei as his own deepest part, and said his original plan had been to write her as a schizophrenic character. Commercially she became the show's centre of gravity almost immediately — first in Animage's 1995 and 1996 female character polls, and dubbed "Premium Girl" by the press because books with her on the cover sold so well. Her design and affect were copied relentlessly across the late 1990s, producing a whole stock type of quiet, pale, emotionally sealed girls in other people's shows.

What distinguishes him as a director is a set of habits that spread across the industry after 1996. He holds shots far past comfort. He cuts to hard-typeset title cards in Gothic Minchō. He uses silence as an effect. He shoots animation like live action — telephoto compressions, handheld-feeling framings, light flare, deliberately mundane compositions of power lines and vending machines. He uses documentary and found material inside fiction. And he treats his own psychological state as legitimate raw material, which is either the source of his power or the reason his films are exhausting, depending on who you ask. He married the manga artist Moyoco Anno in 2002. Her comic Insufficient Direction is an affectionate, unsparing account of living with him, and she is generally credited — including by him — with the fact that his later work can imagine happiness. Angels. Seventeen in total, named for beings from Jewish angelology: Sachiel, Shamshel, Ramiel, Gaghiel, Israfel, Sandalphon, Matarael, Sahaquiel, Ireul, Leliel, Bardiel, Zeruel, Arael, Armisael, Tabris. The names are mostly drawn from rabbinical and grimoire sources and assigned with limited regard for the original attributes, though several fit uncomfortably well — Leliel, associated with night, arrives as a sphere of shadow.

The seventh game was initially in development for the Nintendo 64. Square abandoned it. The N64 used cartridges, which were expensive and small; Sony's PlayStation used CDs, which were cheap and held hundreds of megabytes of pre-rendered backgrounds and full-motion video. Square's defection in 1996 was the single most damaging blow the N64 took, and it poisoned the Square–Nintendo relationship for most of a decade. Final Fantasy games did not return to Nintendo home hardware in any meaningful way until much later. Final Fantasy VII shipped in Japan on 31 January 1997 and in North America that September. It was the first mainline entry designed for 3D, using polygonal characters over pre-rendered 2D backdrops, with cinematic cutscenes cut in — a compromise that looked extraordinary at the time and dates badly now, and which is why the Remake project exists. The seventh game was initially in development for the Nintendo 64. Square abandoned it. The N64 used cartridges, which were expensive and small; Sony's PlayStation used CDs, which were cheap and held hundreds of megabytes of pre-rendered backgrounds and full-motion video. Square's defection in 1996 was the single most damaging blow the N64 took, and it poisoned the Square–Nintendo relationship for most of a decade. Final Fantasy games did not return to Nintendo home hardware in any meaningful way until much later. Final Fantasy

The geography is real and religiously loaded. Tokyo-3 stands at Hakone, a volcanic caldera in the Fuji-Hakone region long associated with shrines and with passage between worlds; the Geofront under it is an inverted sacred space, and the lake, mountains and cable-car network in the show correspond closely to the actual landscape. The naming convention is another layer: Akagi, Katsuragi, Ayanami, Soryu, Ikari and Fuyutsuki are all Imperial Japanese Navy ships, mostly from the Pacific War, which gives the cast a submerged national history — every character carries the name of something that sank.

The stylistic inheritance is everywhere: Serial Experiments Lain, RahXephon, Gasaraki, Boogiepop Phantom, Texhnolyze, Blue Submarine No. 6, Martian Successor Nadesico, Gurren Lagann, and in games most obviously Xenogears. Rei's design and affect spawned an entire character type. Makoto Shinkai and Gege Akutami have both named the series as formative. Anno's own hard-cut title cards and telephoto stillness became a house style for a generation of directors who never worked at Gainax. The franchise did not stop when Anno finished with it. At the Evangelion:30+ anniversary festival at Yokohama Arena, 21–23 February 2026, Khara premiered a new thirteen-minute short centred on Asuka, planned, written and supervised by Anno, and then announced an entirely new Evangelion television series — teased as the "Next Genesis." Yoko Taro, the writer behind NieR:Automata, is handling series composition and screenplay; Kazuya Tsurumaki and Tōko Yatabe are directing; Keiichi Okabe is composing; Khara and CloverWorks are animating. No release date has been given.

The second was the Downfall of Númenor at the end of the Second Age, after which the world was made round and Aman removed from the circles of the world altogether. Before that, according to the legends, the world was flat and a mortal ship could in principle reach the West. Afterwards only the Straight Road remains, available to Elven ships and to the few mortals granted passage — which is what the Grey Havens at the end of the book are for. The Shire occupies a small green pocket of it: about forty leagues from the Far Downs to the Brandywine Bridge, divided into four Farthings, with the Old Forest and the Barrow-downs on its eastern flank and Bree just beyond. It is the most densely detailed region on the map — mills, inns, farms, a functioning postal service — and it is drawn from English countryside of roughly 1890, which Tolkien knew as a boy at Sarehole outside Birmingham before the city swallowed it