Neon Genesis Evangelion is a Japanese mecha anime television series. It is set fifteen years after a worldwide cataclysm called the Second Impact. The protagonist is Shinji Ikari, a teenage boy recruited by his father Gendo to the mysterious organization Nerv to pilot a giant biomechanical mecha called an Evangelion. The series explores the experiences and emotions of the Evangelion pilots and Nerv's members as they fight to prevent Angels from causing more cataclysms.