Our story begins in the year 2000 A.D., where a major "meteor" has crashed in Antarctica. Throwing the entire ecosystem into whack, creating terroristic relations between people of every race and creed, and "sinking" the coastal cities and civilizations on Earth; man has received a message from a Higher Authority, God is PO'd. The meteor is in fact a massive being sent down to annihilate the human race because humans have been getting a little too smart for their own good (mainly by been sticking their noses where they don't belong). This being, or "angel", seemingly left Earth in one piece with half of the earth's population still alive. During this time, the United Nations (UN) created an agency to prevent the occurrence of another impact. This agency, NERV, has been created for other, more secret purposes than protecting the Earth's remaining population as well.
After the angel's attack, NERV begins creating the earth's new ultimate weapon of defense, the Artificial Human known as an Evangelion (Eva). Fifteen years later, another "meteor" crashes into earth, causing major panic for the world and its people. The object that has crashed into earth, now officially known as an "angel", is headed for Tokyo-3. Meanwhile, the UN prepares to fight back against the oncoming terror, using shells, grenades, bombs, and whatever they can get their hands on. When this fails, they turn to their so called ultimate weapon, their N2 mines. The mine hits the angel, but instead of being destroyed, the angel continues its path of destruction towards Tokyo-3. Control of the mission transfers from UN generals to the Commander of NERV, Ikari Gendo. With no other option, NERV sends out their ultimate weapon, the Evangelions. After their only Eva pilot (Ayanami Rei) retreats from battle with the Angel, down and injured, they turn Gendo's son, Shinji. Shinji, having no experience with Evas, must pilot Evangelion 01 and try his best to keep the earth from being nuked.
The Evangelions themselves are basically huge mechanical structures that must be "piloted" by someone who can correctly and adequately synchronize with the Eva itself. Due to the fact that the "pilot" of the Eva is so closely synchronized to the movement of the Eva, when something majorly bad happens to the Eva in battle, it happens to the pilot as well. And so who can pilot an Eva? For some reason, only fourteen-year-old school children who are born with certain abilities are adept enough to synchronize with an Eva (this group of fourteen-year-old school children consists of Shinji's entire generation of people). The three "Children" who are chosen for this task are Ayanami Rei,who pilots her Eva out of a feeling of responsibility; Ikari Shinji, who hates having been forced into piloting the Eva, but continues reluctantly partially because he feels that mankind's destruction would be his fault, and partially because he wants to prove to his father that he isn't a coward; and Soryu Asuka, a girl from Germany.. with attitude. Asuka handles her job as an Eva pilot seriously but enthusiastically, confident that she is the one saving Earth.