Live Countdown
Want to see a live countdown to this event? Use the main Sci-Fi Countdown app, select Neon Genesis Evangelion from the Story dropdown, and choose this event from the Event dropdown.
Historical Record
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone takes place in 2015 and serves as the opening movement of the Rebuild continuity. At first glance, it resembles a polished retelling of the early television series. Shinji Ikari is summoned to Tokyo-3, Sachiel attacks, NERV deploys Unit-01, and the war against the Angels begins in familiar form. Yet even in this early stage, the film does more than restage known material. Its structure announces that the franchise is beginning again on altered terms, using the first arc of the original story as a foundation rather than a prison.
The historical function of 1.0 is therefore double. It preserves the essential shape of the original opening while reintroducing the world with different emphasis, scale, and visual precision. Tokyo-3 remains the fortified city built for Angel war. NERV remains the secretive institution beneath it. Shinji remains the reluctant pilot forced into Unit-01 under emergency conditions. But the Rebuild format tightens the arc and frames these events as the starting line of a separate continuity. This matters because later Rebuild entries diverge far more sharply. Without 1.0, that divergence would lack a stable point of comparison.
Within the story itself, the film covers the foundational battles that establish the rules of the conflict. The Angels are still overwhelming presences that ordinary weapons cannot stop. The Evangelions are still both technical systems and personal mysteries. Rei remains enigmatic, Gendo remains emotionally distant, and Shinji is still caught between fear, duty, and a desperate need for recognition. Yet the Rebuild version subtly shifts atmosphere and implication. Certain imagery and certain revelations suggest that this continuity is not merely repeating the past exactly, even when it appears to follow the same road.
The film ends with Operation Yashima, which gives the Rebuild opening a strong historical shape. It begins with the first emergency and closes with a coordinated, high stakes operation that shows what the Evangelion system can accomplish when human will, engineering, and desperate necessity align. In franchise timeline terms, 1.0 marks the point where the Rebuild branch becomes a live historical track of its own. It starts in the same year as the original story, but it does so with the clear intention of eventually becoming something different.
Key details
Date: 2015
Location: Tokyo-3 and NERV Headquarters, Japan
Source: Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, 2007
Significance: This film begins the Rebuild continuity by retelling the opening phase of Evangelion before the later films diverge into a separate path.
Related events
FAQ
Q: Is Evangelion 1.0 exactly the same as the early TV episodes?
No. It tracks the first arc closely, but it is framed as the beginning of the Rebuild continuity rather than a simple copy. The differences become more important as the film line continues.
Q: Why stop the page at 1.0 instead of covering the whole Rebuild story here?
Because 1.0 has its own historical role as the branching starting point. Once 2.0 begins to diverge much more aggressively, it deserves its own separate event record.