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Historical Record
The main Angel war of Neon Genesis Evangelion takes place across 2015, the year when Tokyo-3 becomes the center of a repeated sequence of attacks, sorties, recoveries, and escalating revelations. This is the period most viewers think of when they think of the series itself. The long post Second Impact preparation phase ends and the active conflict begins. Sachiel's arrival proves that the threat is real, the Evangelions are necessary, and NERV's strange defensive city has been built for exactly this purpose. After that first battle, the war does not settle into a stable military routine. Each Angel brings a new problem, a new tactical demand, and a new crack in the public fiction that this is a conventional defence operation.
What defines the 2015 campaign is variety. The Angels do not attack in one fixed form or by one predictable method. Some are overwhelming physical presences that must be met by force. Others test the limits of range, power distribution, synchronisation, or the psychological endurance of the pilots. Tokyo-3 itself is repeatedly transformed by these battles. Streets clear, buildings retract, launch cages open, emergency grids activate, and ordinary daily life is suspended with alarming speed. The city becomes a machine for surviving sudden invasion. Yet each successful defence also leaves damage behind, whether structural, emotional, or political. Victory in Evangelion is rarely clean.
The period is also the making and unmaking of the pilot group. Shinji, Rei, and Asuka do not simply fight side by side as a straightforward heroic team. Their coordination is inconsistent, their personal wounds are severe, and the command structure above them is riddled with concealment and manipulation. As the Angel battles continue, the strain on each pilot deepens. Combat skill grows, but so does instability. This is what makes the 2015 run so central to Evangelion's identity. It is not a monster-of-the-week sequence detached from character or history. It is the process by which repeated conflict strips away appearances and exposes the human cost of using children as the front line of planetary defence.
By the end of the year, the Angel battles have done more than test NERV's hardware. They have exposed the fragility of the whole system. Tokyo-3 is scarred, the pilots are exhausted, and the distinction between defeating the Angels and advancing deeper hidden agendas becomes harder to maintain. In strict historical terms, 2015 is the decisive campaign year of the original series. It contains the public war that the world can see and the private unraveling that only a handful of people understand. Everything that follows, from Instrumentality to Third Impact, grows directly out of what this year reveals.
Key details
Date: 2015, approximate
Location: Tokyo-3 and surrounding theatres, Japan
Source: Neon Genesis Evangelion, 1995 to 1996
Significance: This is the core campaign year in which NERV and the Eva pilots fight the main run of Angel attacks.
Related events
FAQ
Q: Are all of the major Angel battles confined to Tokyo-3?
No. Tokyo-3 is the main center of operations, but the conflict extends to other environments and strategic zones as the Angels attack in different ways. The city remains the main symbolic and operational focal point of the war.
Q: Why treat 2015 as one summary event at all?
Because the series uses repeated Angel attacks to define the character of the whole year. The campaign works as a continuous phase of history even though it consists of many separate battles.