10 Great Anime Films Of The 21st Century (That Aren't Studio Ghibli)

Virtually any anime fan worth their salt will have seen Neon Genesis Evangelion, the seminal deconstruction of the giant mecha genre that first surfaced in 1995. Much in the way that Twin Peaks helped reshape broadcast drama in America, Hideaki Anno's original 26-episode series and subsequent movie finale The End of Evangelion proved a defining moment in Japanese media and remains acclaimed - and debated - to this day.

A decade on from its release however - and somewhat removed from the battle with depression he faced during its original production - its creator revisited the franchise to offer a personal reinterpretation of its events, in what has become known as the Rebuild of Evangelion quadrilogy. While its first entry, Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, effectively streamlined the first six episodes of the show, its follow-up cut loose with its own style, ultimately blazing a new path for the franchise.

That's part of the hypnotic pull to this quasi-mythological near-masterpiece though - it turns its old echoes into something new with a genuine sense of unexpected daring, conjuring up nightmarish wonder and tranquil terror hand-in-hand. After another depression-related delay, its last sequel - Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time - is scheduled to arrive later this year as a reportedly conclusive installment - but it will need to be something special to beat this beast.