Mysterious even by Rebuild standards, the IPEA answers to the United Nations while operating apart from NERV. Its initials expand to International Project Evangelion Agency; the group guards the sealed Unit-02 under Vatican Treaty terms, and Mari Makinami Illustrious pilots on its behalf before it dissolves.
United Nations jurisdiction covers the IPEA, yet almost everything else about the agency stays opaque across the Rebuild of Evangelion films. It manages its own affairs entirely apart from the rebuilt NERV, and the full name behind the acronym, International Project Evangelion Agency, hints at a mandate spanning the whole Eva program. By the series' end the organization is recorded as dissolved.
Its insignia depicts a being shaped like an Eva, carrying three eyes and a pair of cores, and that exact silhouette is what Evangelion Unit-01 comes to mirror during Near Third Impact. The parallel extends to staging. Painted across the doors of the containment silo, the emblem splits open with them, and the light spilling out between its two cores anticipates the glow that later pours from the heart of Unit-01.
Custody of Evangelion Unit-02 is the agency's headline duty; the unit sits inside an IPEA containment facility per terms laid down in the Vatican Treaty. That custodial role turns operational when the Tenth Angel attacks. Unit-02 sorties from the facility with Mari Makinami Illustrious in the entry plug and the site's own technicians running her support, which points toward the IPEA holding independent authority to field Evangelion units.
Manufacturing appears to be part of its portfolio as well. When Evangelion Provisional Unit-05 boots up, the startup display credits its subsystem to IPEA manufacture, so the agency evidently helps prepare at least some of the Eva fleet. Its record also touches Bethany Base, where Provisional Unit-05 met its end destroying the Third Angel.
Just one member carries a name: Mari Makinami Illustrious, who pilots for the agency. Hardware-wise, the IPEA lost Provisional Unit-05 in the fight against the Third Angel and held Unit-02 in containment until Mari took it into combat. Its weapon stocks include the Thunder Spear, a portable piece designated B-012, custom built for Evangelion hands to deliver a massive electrical discharge.
Designer Ikuto Yamashita compares the organization to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and he drew the IPEA emblem as a deliberate visual cousin of the IAEA's.
IPEA stands for International Project Evangelion Agency, a United Nations organization from the Rebuild of Evangelion films that operates independently of NERV.
The IPEA holds Evangelion Unit-02 in a containment facility under the terms of the Vatican Treaty, and it deploys the unit with Mari Makinami Illustrious in the entry plug when the Tenth Angel attacks.
IPEA-manufactured Evangelion Provisional Unit-05 was destroyed at Bethany Base while defeating the Third Angel.
Mari Makinami Illustrious is the only named pilot who flies for the IPEA in the Rebuild of Evangelion films.
Designer Ikuto Yamashita modeled the IPEA's emblem and concept as a deliberate visual cousin of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
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View on FandomThis content is original writing by Daddy Jim Anime based on the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series, manga, and official materials. Neon Genesis Evangelion was created by Hideaki Anno, published by Kadokawa, and animated by khara and Gainax. All rights to Neon Genesis Evangelion and its characters belong to their respective owners. Episode and chapter references are cited where applicable.
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