Nerv

Nerv (German: nerve) is a paramilitary special agency nominally under the control of the United Nations. Nerv is tasked with defending humanity from the Angels through use of the Evangelions, which it constructed.

Origin and purpose

Officially, Nerv is "a private organization under the direct supervision of the UN", and under the aegis of the United Nations it is granted power to pressure local civilian and military organizations into aiding it, but in reality Nerv has very little oversight from the United Nations itself (beyond matters of funding). The effort to defeat the Angels is left almost totally at the discretion of Nerv's highest ranking personnel, without outside interference. Further, Nerv is pursuing its own agendas unknown to the UN, from sabotaging a rival defense contractor's prototype combat robot, "Jet Alone", to Nerv's ultimate clandestine goal to carry out the Human Instrumentality Project.

Originally, Nerv was known as Gehirn, but after its headquarters at Tokyo-3 and the Magi supercomputers were completed, it was renamed and reorganized into "Nerv" in 2010. Secretly, Nerv is backed by the mysterious organization Seele, a power cabal covertly controlling the United Nations.

There are several global branches of Nerv besides the main Nerv HQ base built underneath Tokyo-3, such as Nerv-01 (Massachusetts), Nerv-02 (Nevada), and Nerv-03 (Germany). Nerv also has a secondary testing facility located at Matsushiro.

Observed Nerv rank structure (in descending order) includes:

• Commander
• Vice-Commander
• Major (denoted by two lines on rank insignia)
• Captain
• First Lieutenant

However, a definitive ranking list is never provided.

Personnel and organization

Rank structure and uniforms

The command structure of Nerv does not appear to exactly follow the established pattern of any single current national military or organization.

The observed Nerv rank structure includes (in descending order):

• Commander (Gendo Ikari)
• Vice-Commander (Kozo Fuyutsuki)
• Major (Misato Katsuragi, after Episode 12)
• Captain (Misato Katsuragi, before Episode 12).
• First Lieutenant (Makato Hyuga, Shigeru Aoba, Maya Ibuki)

Certain persons, such as Ryoji Kaji, appear to have great freedom inside Nerv facilities despite not fitting into the established ranks. Kaji does not appear to have a specific rank, nominally working for Nerv's internal affairs division, where he is in fact a triple agent (as Misato points out, he doesn't actually have a "real" job at Nerv; Kaji is there to secretly perform tasks for Gendo, while in turn secretly investigating Gendo). Dr. Ritsuko Akagi herself, a very high ranking member in the Nerv command hierarchy and head of the entire Technical division, is never listed as having a formal rank. Ritsuko's full title at Nerv is ""Chief of Project E, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi of the Bureau of Technology's First Division."

In terms of the chain of command, control of Nerv HQ actually falls to Misato Katsuragi if both Gendo Ikari and Fuyutsuki are not present. This happened only once (pointed out as being an unprecedented occurrence) in Episode 12, soon after Misato was promoted to Major (thus it is not entirely clear if she was at this position in the chain of command when she was still a captain, but there's nothing to suggest that she wasn't). Misato Katsuragi and Ritsuko Akagi, as the department heads of the Tactical and Technical divisions, respectively, seem to hold a more or less equivalent position in the Nerv hierarchy. The exact rank relationship between Misato and Ritsuko is a bit murky, as several times throughout the series they give countermanding orders: ultimately it appears that Misato overrules Ritsuko on Tactical matters, involving actual combat and military deployment of Evas, while Ritsuko overrules Misato on Technical matters, such as if an Eva has become so badly damaged in a fight that the pilot cannot remain inside. This of course leads Misato and Ritsuko into conflict multiple times during the series, as Misato prioritizes the lives of the Eva pilots and will favor ejecting a pilot that is in danger, while Ritsuko prioritizes the survival of the Evangelion Units and considers the pilots to be ultimately replaceable compared to them. In terms of Nerv's actual, secret agenda, Misato is "out of the loop" on many matters known only to Gendo Ikari, Fuyutsuki, and Ritsuko. This ultimately puts Ritsuko in the position of de facto third-in-command for Nerv's secret agendas, of which Misato knows nothing.

Major is denoted by two lines on rank insignia.

Notes

• "Nerv" is named after the German word "nerve", following the scheme that Nerv's predecessor organization "Gehirn" is named after the German word for "brain", and Seele after the German word for "soul". The proper pronunciation is something along the lines of "nairf", and it is phonetically approximated into Japanese as nerufu. The casts of the English dubs by ADV Films and Manga Entertainment do not provide as accurate a rendition: they simply say "nerv" exactly like the English word "nerve".

"Nerv" spelled with lowercase letters

• "Nerv" is often spelled using all-capital letters in the series, however it is apparently not an acronym. Further, it is not spelled with all-capital letters on the "Welcome to Nerv" pamphlet that Shinji is given in Episode 01. "NERV" is just how the word is often romanized by the Japanese production team: other words like "Adam" or "Second Impact" are spelled as "ADAM" or "SECOND IMPACT" at times in the series. This is merely a quirk of translation.